


Plans, or the Lack Thereof

by ChaoticGoose



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Haruno Sakura, Gen, Haruno Sakura-centric, No beta we die like Naruto's parents, Relationship tag applies to the end of the fic, Sakura has shitty parents, i love she
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 03:54:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,307
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29254023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticGoose/pseuds/ChaoticGoose
Summary: Sakura’s sick of being left behind by her teammates. She’s sick of being the afterthought, the girl, the mediator, the nice girl. So she won’t. She’ll take destiny by the throat and mold it to suit her desires. After all, Sakura’s determined, and if there isn’t a way, she’ll make one herself.A wave arc rewrite where Sakura pulls herself together and gains some ambitions. She won’t be the weak link anymore.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 12
Kudos: 139





	Plans, or the Lack Thereof

**Author's Note:**

> Other obsessions may come and go but Naruto is eternal.
> 
> This has been done before and by better writers than me, but I thought I’d give it a try myself because lbr, I can’t get enough Sakura fics. Enjoy!
> 
> CW: bad parents, depictions of violence, swearing, and my own clunky prose.

The night is misty and cold. Sakura sits on the roof of Tazuna’s house and suppresses a shiver. She can’t tell whether it’s from the cold or the memories of the fight earlier that day. Kakashi-sensei’s still asleep, and as far as Sakura can tell, he’ll stay like that for a couple more days.

This leaves Naruto, Sasuke-kun, and herself to defend Tazuna and his family. Sakura’s fairly certain that Sasuke-kun and even Naruto will be fine, but every time she thinks back to that encounter, her knees lock up and she feels nauseous. 

She could barely do anything more than tremble in the background while Naruto of all people jumped into the fight to save sensei. She remembers the way fear hung thick in the air, clogging up her lungs and making her limbs feel like stone. Her only minor comfort comes from the fact that sensei managed to kill the missing nin.

She keeps getting hung up on the fact that she did nothing. She was more useless than Naruto. Her fear got the better of her, and she froze in the middle of a fight. She can almost hear Iruka-sensei lecturing her.  _ Fear is a natural response and it has its place, but you cannot let it control you, _ he’d say. _ Freezing in the middle of a fight is a death sentence, and I don’t want to lose any of you to something as simple as that, alright? _

Sakura sighs. It’s her first mission out of the village and she’s already failed as a ninja... She wants to cry, but the tears won’t come. She just feels a gnawing emptiness in her stomach and a cold certainty that if she doesn’t shape up, she’s gonna die young. Maybe even on this mission, and isn’t that a chilling thought...

An owl hoots from the trees, startling her out of her thoughts. The moon is high in the sky, shedding enough light on the water that it looks like silver. It’s beautiful. It makes her want to puke. She thinks back to Kakashi-sensei’s fight with Zabuza and wonders how something so pretty can be deadly. She wants to be pretty and deadly, but she’s a nobody. She’s just boring old Sakura with a too big forehead, eye-searingly bright pink hair, and no skills whatsoever.

Sakura is sick of being weak. She wants to be strong; she wants to fight; she doesn’t want to be left behind, but she doesn’t know where to start, and sensei is passed out downstairs and she feels so alone.

A breeze blows across the roof and Sakura shivers. She slips back inside the house to warm up. Neither Naruto or Sasuke-kun stirred when she entered, which she expected. They’d both tired themselves out earlier, and probably won’t wake until noon. Sakura sighs quietly and slips into her futon to try and catch some sleep.

She sleeps fitfully, and gives up around the time the sun begins to peek out over the water. She goes out onto the balcony and watches the sun rise. It paints the sky a gorgeous orange that slowly fades into yellow, then blue. 

By that point, Sakura hears noises from the kitchen. It’s Tsunami, Tazuna’s daughter, beginning to prepare breakfast. Sakura figures that if she’s gonna mope all day, she might as well be productive, so she walks over and offers to help with the chores.

\---

The next few days fall into a strange sort of routine: Sakura barely sleeps, she watches the sun rise, then spends the day doing chores and cleaning up for Tsunami and Tazuna. Naruto and Sasuke-kun fuck off to who knows where all day. The only time they see each other is at mealtimes, and after that first disastrous attempt at a civilized conversation, they barely speak. It’s kinda depressing in it’s monotony.

Sensei wakes up on the fourth day, and to be honest, Sakura’s not sure whether to be relieved or not. On the one hand, with Sensei around, it’s easier to pretend that things are normal and to fall back onto old habits, but in the other hand, Sakura is even more keenly aware of how much of a disappointment she is.

He drops the bombshell at breakfast that very morning. 

“Zabuza’s still alive,” is all he says, but it sends a chill down Sakura’s spine. She doesn’t want to die, especially not in Wave.

After breakfast, Sensei takes them to the woods. Sakura doesn’t know what to expect, but a lesson certainly wasn’t it. And lo and behold, Sensei’s demonstration wasn’t even a proper lesson. Sakura figured it out; it wasn’t all that hard, and she feels a sense of vicious glee when she sees Naruto fail spectacularly.

Her mood quickly sours when Sasuke-kun glares at her disdainfully. She figured it out! That should count for something, right? Small tendrils of anger writhe in her gut, and she walks higher just to prove that she can.

Her anger is compounded when Sensei uses her incredible success at tree-walking as just another way to egg on the boys’ rivalry. It hurts how little he cares for her progress compared to the boys’. He doesn’t even give her anything else to do, instead opting to wave her off and read that shitty porn of his. She’s going to burn that ugly little book someday, she swears.

So now she’s here, wandering around the bridge, practicing walking on the side and under the bridge, and staring at a whole bunch of old, sweaty men while they work. She’s bored and angry and likely to punch the next person that tries to talk to her. She probably looks like it too, since the builders keep glancing at her nervously. Or more likely they don’t trust her to keep them safe.

That thought annoys Sakura, because it’s true. She’s weak and useless, nothing compared to Zabuza or Kakashi-sensei, or even Sasuke-kin and Naruto. Sensei probably just sent her to the bridge to get her out of the way.

A builder approaches her warily and she glares at him. He backs away a little.

“Umm, Shinobi-san,” he begins, “we’re packing up for the day, so if you would be so kind as to escort us back to the village…”

Sakura huffs, but she follows him off the bridge anyway. The village itself isn’t particularly noteworthy. It’s a run-down cluster of around twenty buildings surrounding a dingy and empty square. Dilapidated market stalls line the edge of the square, rotting from disuse. The dock’s barely faring much better. It’s here that the signs of poverty are the clearest. Sakura hopes that the bridge will open trade back up again and bring some much-needed wealth back to the village.

The sun’s setting by the time she and Tazuna make it back to his house. Sasuke-kun and Kakashi-sensei are already back, but Naruto is nowhere to be seen. Sakura briefly wonders where he is before she gets distracted by food. Dinner is pretty plain, only white rice and fish, but it’s tasty enough. Honestly, the only good thing that’s come from this mission is having regular meals.

\---

Finally, a week after the first time she was sent to guard the bridge-builders on her own, Sensei says that he and Sasuke-kun will be joining her on guard duty. Surprisingly, Sakura can’t muster up any actual enthusiasm at the news. Normally, being with Sasuke-kun is enough to make her ecstatic in and of itself, but today her biggest response is  _ ugh _ . 

It honestly worries Sakura a little. Who is she supposed to be without her crush, and more importantly, what would mama think? Mama always tells her that a woman’s job is to get married and have kids, but she kinda doesn’t want to do either of those things. That revelation makes her wonder.

She shakes her head and stops thinking about that. Instead she keeps an eye on the road. It takes around fifteen minutes to get from the bridge to the village

It’s a foggy morning, and Tazuna explains that he and his team are bringing a shipment in under the cover of the fog, so Gato doesn’t realize what’s happening. When they get to the bridge, there are already several men unloading supplies from a boat. The fog is thicker here, and Sakura can hardly see the water below the bridge.

She can barely see a boat full of stone, lumber, and concrete floating in the water. Tazuna’s team is on the end of the bridge, unloading the supplies as quickly and quietly as they can with small cranes. Kakashi-sensei leads them onto the bridge so they can supervise from nearby. 

As they’re walking down the incomplete bridge, the fog starts thickening quickly. It puts Sakura on edge, and Sasuke looks uncomfortable as well.  _ It’s strange how quickly the fog is setting in, _ she thinks. All of a sudden, she sees a flash of silver through the fog and throws herself and Sasuke to the ground. Several senbon fly right through the spot where they were just standing.

Sensei draws a kunai and uncovers his sharingan. “Sakura, Sasuke, I want you two to get Tazuna and the others off the bridge. Getting the civilians to safety is your first priority. Meet back up with Naruto and keep the village safe. Bridges can be rebuilt from scratch; humans can’t.”

Sakura and Sasuke nod and make to take off, but they’re intercepted by Zabuza’s pet hunter-nin. Sasuke turns to face him, while Sakura continues running towards Tazuna and the other builders. She trusts Sasuke to keep the fake hunter-nin off her back while she gets everyone out of the battle-zone. Once she finds Naruto, they’ll regroup with Sensei and Sasuke and finish fighting the enemy nin off.

It’s a solid plan, but as they say, a plan never survives contact with the enemy. By some miracle, she dodges all the senbon that make it past Sasuke and reaches Tazuna and a group of builders huddled on the edge of the bridge.

She’s the leader right now; she’s gotta get them to safety and get them there fast enough that she can come back and help Sasuke. It’s fine. No pressure or anything.

“We need to get out of here,” she says intelligently.  _ Way to state the obvious, _ she thinks to herself. _ Now think, how can you get them past the battles and off this bridge?  _ There’s gotta be a way off the bridge that doesn’t invol-- The boat creaks from the water below.

“Can you guys drive that boat?” she asks.

“Of course,” one of the builders says, offended. “It’s just that it’s tethered to the bridge so someone will have to stay on the bridge to unmoor it.”

Sakura frowns at that. She probably shouldn’t leave the builders alone, as she doesn’t know if Zabuza and his apprentice brought reinforcements… Wait, she’s been practicing walking on the side of the bridge all week, and if she’s fast enough, she’ll only need to take a few steps on the water to get to the boat safely. 

“I’ll untie the boat then join you on it,” she says.

They nod and begin shuffling onto the boat as quietly as they can. Tazuna helps Sakura throw the board acting as a walkway into the water and Sakura begins to untie the thick, wet ropes and throw them down into the boat.

The boat begins drifting away as soon as she gets the last rope untied. Sakura immediately walks down one of the supports of the bridge nearest the boat. It’s drifting maybe a meter or two away from where she’s standing. Sakura briefly wonders if she can just swim to the boat, but dipping her toe in the water, she realizes that it’s too cold to swim in and still have hope of fighting properly afterwards.

She takes a deep breath, channels chakra to the bottom of her sandals and steps out into the water. She wobbles, but is able to get enough traction to take another step, and another. She gets two more steps in before her foot falls through the surface of the water, and for a split second she thinks,  _ oh shit. This is where I fail. This is where I die, alone in the water, where nobody will find my body. Will anyone even care when I’m gone?  _ Fortunately she’s grabbed by a pair of strong arms right before she falls in and hauled into the boat.

Sakura sighs in relief and sags down onto the deck of the boat. She’s cold and damp, but she has to stay strong long enough to get everyone through this safely.

The builders begin taking the boat the short distance to the village. When they get there, Sakura is surprised by the amount of activity in the square. Everybody seems to be frantically arming themselves.

“What’s happening?” Sakura asks a relatively calm looking woman.

“Ah, Shinobi-san,” she says, “your orange teammate just reminded them why they want the bridge, and why we oppose Gato so strongly. It was incredibly inspiring.”

_ That fucking idiot! _ Sakura is going to murder Naruto one of these days, but she follows the group of villagers out of the town and towards the bridge regardless. While they’re walking, Sakura starts noticing signs of another large group of people moving towards the bridge. That’s not good. Sakura splits away from the group to rush to the bridge. What if Naruto, Sasuke, and Sensei have been overwhelmed by a mob? What if they’re dying and she wasn’t there to help? What if it’s her fault?

She gets to the bridge in record time, and leaps from the foliage to see Sasuke passed out in the middle of the bridge and Naruto literally smoking. Their opponent lies still on the ground nearby. Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza seem to have stopped fighting, and are both glaring at an ugly asshole, who’s practically dripping with golden accessories. Sakura assumes that he’s Gato. Most importantly, they’re all surrounded by a mob of thugs.

All at once, things start to move. Gato signals his thugs to attack, Kakashi and Zabuza start fighting them off, and Naruto drags Sasuke off to the side of the fighting. Sakura freezes and hears loud noises from behind. The villagers charge out onto the bridge and begin fighting with the thugs.

Sakura shakes herself out of her stupor and launches herself into the fray. She runs towards Naruto, because he looks like he’s about to fall over from exhaustion and he looks like he could use a hand.

There’s a man leering over him, and Sakura sees red. She throws a kunai, hitting him in the shoulder, and then rams all of her (meager) body weight into him, throwing him off the bridge.

“Nice save, Sakura-chan!” Naruto shouts.

Sakura gives him a smile that’s probably closer to a grimace. In unison, they turn their backs to each other and rejoin the fight. Naruto summons a couple dozen clones to create chaos among Gato’s men, and Sakura weven between them, knocking out thugs and nicking tendons. She stabs a few in the stomach when they get too close to Sasuke for comfort and tosses them off the bridge. She hopes she didn’t kill them, but she has no time to think about that right now; not when Sasuke and Naruto are depending on her.

It feels nice to be relied on, to watch Naruto’s back as he watches her’s. Maybe after this is over and they’re back in Konoha, she’ll apologize to both boys and buy them dinner. She watched as someone is drowned under a pack of Narutos.

Finally, after what feels like an eternity the fighting slows, everyone’s attention drawn to the scene in the center of the bridge. Zabuza has his massive sword up to Gato’s throat, and he cuts it without a shred of hesitation or mercy. Gato crumples to the ground, and even before his body has hit the ground, pretty much all his hired thugs have run away. The remaining stragglers are captured easily enough, especially with Sakura’s help (and ninja wire).

While that was happening, Naruto was giving Zabuza a heartfelt goodbye and letting him die next to his apprentice, as if he hadn’t tried to kill them multiple times. As Zabuza lets out his final breath, Sasuke stirs.

Sakura rushes over to help him pull out the senbon still lodged in his body, and a nearby villager provides an antiseptic and some bandages. They’ll have to redo them later, but they’re sufficient for now.

With Gato gone, there should be nothing preventing Tazuna from finishing his bridge. Sakura breathes out a sigh of relief, but she doesn’t let herself relax until they’re all back at Tazuna’s house and fed.

The boys and Kakashi all head upstairs immediately after dinner, but Sakura opts to sit out on the porch for a little while to process what happened that day alone.

When she finally unwinds enough to think clearly about what happened, she feels sick.

She probably killed someone today. Multiple someones even. She, weak, pink, civilian Sakura killed a living, breathing human and didn’t even feel guilt. She wants to hurl. All the desensitization training in the world can’t prepare her for the feeling of killing someone, of causing the light to disappear from their eyes permanently. She knows that people are supposed to feel guilty after killing someone, but she can’t find any guilt for it anywhere. All there is is the knowledge that they were an enemy and that the death was necessary for her team’s continued survival.

It terrifies Sakura, the fact that she’s able to kill so easily. Maybe when she gets home she can start seeing a therapist. She definitely needs one by now.

Sakura just hopes she can leave this place behind her, and soon.

\---

But of course, life is never fair like that. Instead Kakashi begins negotiating with Tazuna and the villagers:

“Maa, I think we can stay and supervise for around a month,” Kakashi sensei says. An evil glint enters his eye. “Now, let’s talk payment. A little birdie told me that you just confiscated a lot of wealth from a certain evil businessman, more than enough to cover an A-rank mission with plenty left over, no?”

And with that, what they’re doing for the next month is decided. Sakura sighs. She just wants to get out of here already.

\---

When they finally reach the gates of Konoha, Sakura sighs in relief. She can finally get home, take a shower, put on her fluffiest PJs and sleep. Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei also look like they’re gonna collapse, but Naruto is somehow just as full of energy as he was when they left. Honestly, it feels like a lifetime ago that they set out on the mission. Sakura feels like a different person for all that she’s seen and how much she’s changed, and they were only gone a month and a half!

Anyway, after what feels like an eternity (and probably was, to be honest), the guards let the four of them into the village. She starts heading home, but Sensei stops her. 

“We need to give Hokage-sama our report, and then we can finally return home.”

Naruto groans dramatically, and Sakura can’t help but agree with him. She wants a bath. Now. But duty wins out in the end, and she drags Naruto to follow Kakashi and Sasuke.

Giving the report goes about as well as anything can with Naruto nearby, that is to say, it was a disaster. Naruto had regained his cheer on the walk to the administrative building, and was now regaling the Hokage with an extremely exaggerated version of the truth. While it makes for a good story, it’s a terrible mission report. Sensei clearly thinks so too, since he hurries Naruto up and then gives a much more succinct summary of what occurred. Hokage-sama just sighs when he hears that the mission really was misranked and then agrees to give them A-rank pay. They’re released shortly afterward, but Kakashi-sensei is held back, presumably to get scolded.

Sakura races down the streets to her family’s apartment, keys in hand. If she’s lucky, her parents won’t be home to criticize her and she can take as long as she wants in the bath. If her parents are home, they’ll most certainly be in a bad mood. Sakura shivers at the thought.  _ No! I can’t think about that now. Happy thoughts--  _

When she gets to her house, she finds something worse than her parents in a bad mood: the lock has been changed and there’s an envelope taped to the door. She opens it and pulls out a note from her mother. It reads:

> _ Sakura, as you are now a legal adult, you are no longer welcome in the Haruno residence. We have taken the liberty of selling all of your belongings. Your father has graciously decided that you do not owe rent for the time that you lived under our roof. Be thankful for his generosity. Additionally, you no longer have the right to call yourself a Haruno. Your father and I have made it very clear that we will not tolerate a Ninja in the family. Enclosed is the completed paperwork for a name change. Sign it and submit it to the administrative offices. Finally, if we see you in or near our home again, we will call the authorities. _
> 
> _ Sincerely,  _ _ Haruno Mebuki _

Sakura crumples the note with tears in her eyes. What the actual fuck. She knew they were cruel, but to think they would go this far… Where can she even go? It’s not like she has any friends to help her, not since she and Ino broke up. Tears start welling in her eyes, but she forces them back. Crying won’t solve anything.

First, she should submit this paperwork, just so she can stop looking at it. Then, she can rip up the note from her mother, and she can figure out more from there. It’s a shitty plan, but it’ll keep her going through the next hour at least.

Her plan starts off well enough. She gets to the civilian offices and hands in the paperwork. The person working the desk scans the paperwork and stamps it, taking one copy for themself and giving the other one to Sakura with a pitying smile. Sakura bristles under the gaze. She’s a shinobi dammit. She doesn’t need their pity. Sakura turns away from the desk in a huff and stalks off to find something cheap to eat.

Her plan is disrupted almost immediately. Almost as soon as she enters the stir-fry place, she runs into Ino.  _ Please don’t notice me please don’t notice me please don’t noti-- Crap. _ As if summoned by her internal mantra, Ino turns her head and focuses on her like a hawk going for the kill. 

“Hey Forehead, what’s up? You look like crap,” Ino says. Her tone is surprisingly kind.

“Leave me alone,” Sakura mumbles.

“Where’s your enthusiasm?” Ino asks. She looks down to Sakura’s hands, where she’s clutching her mother’s note and the paperwork. “Hey? What’s this?” She grabs it out of Sakura’s hands easily.

“Hey! Give it back,” Sakura shouts.

“Nuh-uh,” Ino says, opening the letter. She starts skimming through it and pales considerably. 

Sakura stares at her, unable to muster the willpower to move a muscle. _ What will she do what will she say I can’t take another rejection please don’t comment on it please don't be mean oh no I think I’m going to cry somebody help please get me out of this situation… _ Sakura’s thoughts begin spiralling faster and faster and then Ino reaches towards her and Sakura flinches. Hard. Ino pauses and holds up her hands in apology.

“Alright. Change of plans, Forehead. You’re coming with me,” Ino declares. She grabs Sakura’s hand and starts leading her away.

“Wha--” Sakra starts to protest, but Ino cuts her off.

“We may have been arguing before, but what sort of friend would I be if I left you without a home. Come on. I’ve got a bath and you can borrow a pair of my pajamas.”

Sakura looks at Ino, and this time she can’t hold in her tears. All at once, she leans into Ino and starts sobbing, all the pent up emotions from Wave, and her anger at her gene donors, and her helplessness in her tears. Ino hugs her back hesitantly, like she doesn’t know how to deal with arms full of crying Sakura. She leads them back to her house, and by the time they’re there, Sakura’s stopped crying for the most part.

“Hey, Ino? Thanks…” Sakura mumbles.

“That’s what friends are for, right?” Ino hugs her tighter.

“Yeah.” Sakura agrees. Being friends again sounds nice. If Ino were in the position she’s in, she would offer her a place to crash in a heartbeat.

“Alright then, let’s get you a bath because you stink. And that’s a lot of dirt and shit on your dress; I don’t think it can be cleaned. Whatever, that just means more shopping.” 

Sakura listens to Ino babble, smiling at the warm feeling growing in her chest. Despite the recent events, Sakura is more content than she’s been in a long time.

\---

That night, after a warm shower and a pleasant meal with Ino’s family, Sakura and Ino tuck into bed together, whispering and gossiping just like old times. Occasionally, one of them lets the topic drift to Sakura’s shitty parents, but the other gently reminds them that that isn’t something to think about tonight. All their problems can wait until the morning. For now, it’s just Sakura and Ino cuddling together and talking about unimportant things. It’s nostalgic and Sakura wonders why she could have ever let this go.

**Author's Note:**

> I may or may not make this a series; it depends on how much time and energy I have. I had fun writing this, and while I’m not completely happy with it, I’m proud of how it turned out. And let’s be real, I’d go insane if I tried to make something that I’m completely happy with lol.
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated. Stay safe, y’all!


End file.
